The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian-Serbian revolutionary, in 1914 is considered to be the event that sparked the First World War.

On June 28, 1914, Princip shot and killed the Archduke and the Duchess while they were visiting Sarajevo, Bosnia, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Princip and several other young men who were involved in the plot were part of a secret organization called the Black Hand, which was dedicated to the liberation of the Balkans from Austro-Hungarian rule. The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the Duchess of Hohenberg was a significant event in European history and had far-reaching consequences. It led to a series of events that ultimately led to the outbreak of World War I.